Tea Time Didn't Use to be This Weird
by TheOtherOswald
Summary: SJA X Eric's TBD RPG After defeating Rassilon, the Master had assumed everything would just sort of... fall back into place. The last thing he expected was getting shot by some idiot on a resort planet and falling through a rift between worlds. Luckily, however, he fell into the world his current Doctor came from. Unfortunately, the closest help is none other than Sarah Jane Smith.
1. I) Beginnings are a Rare Occurrence

**So I noticed that there was a surprising lack of Eric's TBD RPG Fanfiction on here AND on AO3, so I thought I'd toss some here to all your starved TBD RPG fans. If you _aren't_ a TBD RPG fan, I highly recommend checking it out if you have a twitch subscription to Geek and Sundry or even getting one to watch it. It's an amazing Doctor Who RPG with some even more amazing players. It's definitely worth it.**

**As always, neither show belongs to me. SJA is a BBC and Russell T. Davies production and TBD RPG is the Brain Child of Eric Campbell and the production of the amazing players.**

**If you like this story, please favorite and review, because I live for praise.**

* * *

Sarah Jane Smith had been in the kitchen making something for Tea when there was a knock on the door. She had just wiped off her hands and had been on her way to the door when she heard Luke call out: "I've got it, Mum."

Smiling, she headed back up the counter, only to hear a loud _thud _shortly after the door opened.

Luke' shout of, "Mum!", had barely reached her ears as she ran towards the entryway of 13 Bannerman Road. There, she was faced with quite a sight. On the ground in front of her son was a limp, most likely unconscious man, dressed in an outfit straight from a 1980's Punk Rock Concert, complete with a dyed-blue mohawk.

"He's bleeding," Luke said from his position at his side.

And, indeed, there's was a growing, wet red spot on the man's side.

"Quickly, then," Sarah Jane said as she guided her son to help him lift the odd man, "let's get him on the couch."

After a bit of struggling, they managed to move the limp man onto the couch. He groaned as they did, but made no move to fight against them. Sarah Jane quickly went to work, rushing to her first aid kit and tossing off his jacket and shirt to be able to start stitching up his wound. However, that seemed to be a moot point as a familiar, warm, golden light began to glow from his wound, helping the stitches to seal the gash. The man, still mostly unconscious, coughed up more of the regeneration energy, causing Sarah Jane to pull herself and Luke back.

"Was that... _regeneration energy_, mum?"

"Yes, I do believe it was," she said, still staring at the man. "Luke, could you go grab the zip ties in the kitchen? Top drawer, left of the stove."

Luke went off to do as he was told, as Sarah Jane moved the time lord to a dining chair, which she tied him to with the zip ties Luke brought back.

* * *

His head pounded as he shifted in his seat. He wasn't sure just what he was _doing_ in a chair, but he was sure it wasn't because of anything bad. He had gone to Sarah Jane Smith's house for a reason. He remembered the door being opened by the young boy Sarah Jane took in, so he was sure she wouldn't kill him.

Yet, at least.

But, he wasn't surprised to find himself restrained. The Ape _did_ have some brains, after all. Unfortunately for her, if he had been here for malicious reasons, he would have been able to escape these simple ties easily.

He lifted his head and opened his eyes, staring up at an angry Ex-Doctor's-Companion who looked at him in a very familiar way.

"Hello, Ms. Smith," he said after rolling his jaw around. That ass had a hard right hook.

"So, you know me. May I have the honor of knowing you?"

He couldn't stop the grin the broke out on his face. "You really don't recognize me? I mean, I know I've changed face a couple of times since we've last seen each other - at least in my universe - but how many Time Lords are even _in_ your universe? Can't be too many, according to my sources."

"What are you getting at?" She was scowling at him now.

"Well, let's see, there's gotta be maybe _four_ Time Lords in your world? Little Lady Larn, who's currently on 22nd Century Earth, poor dear. There's the Corsair, but who knows where _they_ are. There's your _precious_, little Doctor, but we both know I'm not him - it is _him_, right?" At her nod, he continued. "And, last but not least, there's me. Still not dead." His sang the last sentence, enjoying the twitch in her eyes.

"_Master_. What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"Would you believe me if I said I wanted your..." He fumbled over the word before spitting it out like rotten food. "_Help_?"

She frowned and crossed her arms, looking down on a prey animal at her whim. "And why should _I_ help _you_ after everything you've done?"

He huffed out a sigh. "What part of _'From a different universe'_ did you not get?"

"And in this universe, you're - what - _good_?" Sarah Jane scoffed.

"Well, _no_, but-" He fumbled for his words, but spoke up again before she had the chance to interject. "I've _reformed_. I'm not a bad guy anymore. I even helped _my_ Doctor - well, technically your Doctor, but that doesn't matter - save the Multiverse. Every Universe. _Including_ yours. Which, I suppose, means you _owe me_."

He stood, having freed his hands from the ties at the beginning of the conversation. His side still hurt from where he had been shot before falling through the rift, but not nearly as bad as it had.

"Now, are we going to try to figure this out or what?"

* * *

The Master could tell Sarah Jane had no clue about the three human teens listening outside the attic door, and _he_ was surely in no rush to tell her. Instead, he stared at the large screen that displayed the information that had been gathered by the Xylok-run computer. So far, no tears or rifts had been spotted anywhere in this time on this world.

Which made _no bloody sense._

How did he end up in this universe - at this time - if there were supposedly no rifts anywhere near here?

"What should we do?"

Sarah Jane looked aghast. "What do you mean _'we'_?"

"Well, if you'd _rather_ I stay in _your_ time, on _your_ planet, in _your_ universe while there is most likely _another_ of me running around out there, then that's fine with me. I figured _you'd_ be the one who wants me gone, but if you don't then that works for me." He walked over to the door. "I'll be fine on the couch for a little while, but we should probably see about me getting an _actual_ room before too long."

"Wait!" Sarah Jane rushed over to him. "Stop! We'll figure something out, _alright_?"

The Master smirked. "Perfect. Now then..." He tossed open the door, revealing the trio, and honed in on Luke. "As far as I'm aware, you're the smartest human on this miserable little planet. Any ideas?"


	2. II) A Plan Begins To Form

**I'll be honest, I completely forgot I had written this until now. But, then again, no one really cares. I'm still gonna work on it, but it certainly won't be fast. I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

* * *

Luke seemed too surprised to respond for a moment. Meanwhile, next to him, the other boy seemed rather confused. "How did you know we were here?"

The Master scoffed. "_Please_. You may have been stealthy for the Ape in the room-" He ignored Sarah Jane's noise of indignation. "-but it's much harder to sneak up on a Time Lord."

"So you _are_ a Time Lord, then?" The girl asked. "Like the Doctor?"

He rolled his eyes. "If you _must_ compare me to that oaf, then yes, I suppose. In some ways. But that doesn't matter. What _does_ matter is getting me back home before _my_ Doctor blows a casket.

"So," he shifted his gaze back to Luke. "Any ideas?"

"Well," Luke seemed nervous, likely because of the Master, but continued speaking anyway, "how did you get here? Perhaps we could repeat whatever happened and get you back."

The Master frowned at that and put a hand defensively on his side, over where the wound had once been. "I'd rather _not_. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience."

Sarah Jane spoke up from behind him. "What exactly happened? Some context would be useful, especially if it could end up with an alternate dimensional alien causing problems here."

"No, no," he waved a dismissive hand in the air. "No need to worry about that. We were actually leaving when this all happened. I was getting vortex manipulator-ed away when I got shot. Let go in the time vortex and fell through a residual crack in reality, I suppose."

Luke frowned. "Residual?"

"Like I told your mother, I was involved in stopping a multiverse destroying event originating in my universe. The walls between the universes were breaking, Rassilon wanted to harness the energies to control the universe, et cetera, et cetera. I got the Doctor into our universe, she reset it," In the background, the girl mouthed a surprised 'She?' to the other boy beside her, "everything went back to the way it was before. We pulled a Parent Trap-esque swap of the Doctors, and life carried on.

"I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there were still some leftover rips hidden in the time vortex. Sort of like cracks in a vase, even though you glued it back together. It's not gonna fall apart, but the damage is still noticeable. Understand?"

Luke nodded and the Master could tell he truly did. For as much as he hated humans in general, Luke Smith was an intelligent kid. Certainly not _Time Lord_ levels, but given enough time, he could maybe reach it. The Master knew that he was _wasted_ on Earth, at least.

"Is there any way to seek out these 'rips', then? If we could find one in _our_ universe, then we could possibly send you back. You said that it was something that affected the _Multiverse_, then surely there are remains of it in _all_ universes."

"That's-" He stopped himself from reflexively disagreeing as he actually thought about it. "That's... not a bad idea. You are wasted on this miserable little planet, kid."

Luke nodded with a simple smile. "No, I think I'm needed here _because_ of how good I am."

The Master sighed something akin to 'Stupid, stubborn humans' in Gallifreyan, then went over to some of the scrap alien tech around the attic, fiddling with it. "I may be able to help you make a device that can find these. Generally, we just used the Doctor's sonic, but that isn't exactly an option and those tears were much stronger and emitted a more powerful signal. But, if I can make something akin to that with a wider radius and a more powerful..."

And the Time Lord and the mostly human boy fell into technobabble that went _well_ over the heads of the other humans in the room. Even Sarah Jane could barely follow their conversation.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Reality e3njeu44br93jne - colloquially referred to as Pete's World - Two Time Lords, Two Humans, and an Ovachol appeared in front of the TARDIS. Normally, nothing would be wrong with this picture. The problem was, though, that their group of 5 had originally begun as a group of 6.

Finn's first thought upon landing was that they needed to get the Master to the med bay in the TARDIS. Her second thought was the realization that he wasn't there.

"Doctor! Where's the Master?"

The blonde spun quickly, her face only mildly panicked until she saw the empty space next to Finn. "I thought he was with you. Where is he?"

"He was with me when we jumped. Where could he have gone?"

Both the Time Lords had the same dread grow on their faces and the two women glanced at each other. They spoke quietly in their native language, only growing more grave as they did.

It was the Corsair who broke the language barrier. She spoke quietly but firmly: "If he's there, then he's dead already."

"I refuse to believe that, Corsair. We _have_ to find him."

"There won't be anything _to_ find if that's where he ended up!"

Finn approached them with placating hands. "Hold on, what happened to him?"

The Doctor looked as if she were about to cry. "If... If he was with you when you took off, then he likely fell off while traveling through the Time Vortex."

Roko's eyes flew even wider. "You don't mean...?"

The Corsair just nodded.

Cillian frowned. "I'm human. I'm still not getting it."

The Doctor swallowed. "He likely fell off _into_ the Time Vortex. Not even a Time Lord can survive the full brunt of the Time Vortex."

"So, he's-"

"No, he's not."

The Corsair frowned and put a hand on her shoulder. "I know it's hard, but you have to face the facts. The Master is dead."


End file.
